Android 15 is bricking some Fairphone 5 devices, and here’s how you can avoid it

For phone geeks like us, an OS update is usually exciting, but it doesn’t always go smoothly. Multiple reports suggest that the Android 15 update is causing some Fairphone 5 handsets to become bricked, but only if they already had an existing biometric fault.

According to a user and several respondents on the Fairphone Community Forum, the update is freezing some Fairphone 5 devices on the boot screen and making them unable to start. In each case, the phone gets stuck partway through the Fairphone boot animation, displaying only a green “I” on a blank screen. The only way to recover appears to be rolling back to a previous Android version or wiping the device entirely.

A Fairphone representative in the thread confirmed the root cause: The issue only affects Fairphone 5 units with broken fingerprint sensors. Android 15 introduces stricter hardware verification during startup, and if the fingerprint sensor isn’t functioning properly, the phone won’t boot.

That diagnosis is backed up by user comments on the forum. Many who experienced the boot failure said their fingerprint sensor had already stopped working before the update. Some even said they attempted the update in hopes it might resolve the fingerprint issue, only to find their device bricked instead.

The company says a fix is in the works that would allow Android 15 to boot even if the fingerprint hardware is broken, though the sensor itself would remain unusable. For now, affected users can either send their phone in for fingerprint repair or stick with Android 14.

If your Fairphone 5’s fingerprint sensor is already broken, updating now is a risk you probably don’t want to take until a patch is released. Fairphone suggests either sending in your device for fingerprint sensor repair or repeatedly force-rebooting (up to eight times) to get back into Android. If you’re still stuck, contacting customer support is your best bet.